President Petro Poroshenko conveyed his impression from the speech by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in the Ukrainian Parliament when opening the 16th session of the National Council of Reforms dedicated to the tax reform.

"It was not only a message of powerful U.S. support for Ukraine in a very difficult situation. Not only a message of support for the Minsk agreements and the necessity of fulfillment of all their provisions by Russia. It was also a message on the necessity of implementation of the Minsk agreements by Ukraine. I want people's deputies and the public to hear that. It was a message on the necessity of struggle against corruption, which should provide for not only the establishment of respective institutional structures, but also results," Petro Poroshenko said.

According to the president, it was also a message on the necessity of constitutional reform on judiciary, decentralization, deregulation, improvement of investment climate, very important healthcare reform. The president believes that these reforms will demonstrate that Ukraine can be a winner.

"We should be a country that will demonstrate positive changes in conditions of grave crisis," the president noted.

The head of state emphasized that it had been a very important speech. "I would like people's deputies to vote for the ratification of the agreement with the World Bank that will provide funds for reforms, as well as to adopt laws that will let us fulfill all our obligations regarding the visa-free regime with the EU," Petro Poroshenko emphasized.

At the same time, the head of state stressed that his and PM Yatseniuk's recent meetings with leaders of the EU had reaffirmed significant progress in the implementation of the action plan on the visa-free regime, although many people were sceptical of that.

"Optimistic we win," Petro Poroshenko noted.

The president is confident that a compromise on the tax reform will be found during this session. "Yes, we should have a discussion. Yes, we should uphold our opinion. But we should also find courage and wisdom to be one team and amend the tax reform in order to ensure not only transparency and struggle against corruption, but also expenditures for the defense capacity of the state," the head of state stressed.Источник: https://en.censor.net.ua/p364307